Bearlee Rising

[Bearlee]

I'm Bearlee and I dropped off from Nerd Fitness for a while. Now that Rising Heroes is here I'm back. I wanted to start a battle log as opposed to a challenge log due to I'm not going to be changing much in my goals. Mainly to complete the tasks in Rising Heroes. In addition to that (if it's not one of the challenges) I'm going to be tracking my food and improving my diet.

 

Bit of background info. When I left Nerd Fitness back in April 2016 I was down to 280. I'm now up to 360, a 10lb per month gain. I also fell back into my pre-NF habits of drinking soda, eating a ton of sugar, not doing any physical activity, and eating fast food way too often. However in the past couple of months I have mostly cut out all soda with the exception of when I'm at the movies. Since the new year I've also cut way back on fast food and when I do go I make much better decisions. Also since the new year (a little longer) I've cut back on ice cream and Starbuck's coffee. And I'm hoping that now being with Rising Heroes that my activity level will increase also.

 

Since coming back I've remembered some of my struggles and why I left. Still having trouble with the "Content I Follow". Not the same as it was before, but I think I've got the Activity tab figured out. Another but minor concern is the amount of content that there is on the forums and now Facebook. Rising Heroes has 3,500+ people posting and it's a little daunting seeing that and feeling like I should be reading it all. Lastly, and this is all me, I get discouraged by not being able to figure out what my dreams are. It's intimidating seeing so many people that have a lot of big dreams and goals and all I can think about is that I want to lose weight and live longer for my kids.

 

And it's kids now. Had second kid on Oct. 28. Feel bad saying this but the idea of a second kid sent me into depression for childish reasons. The first kid was getting to the age where we were going on adventures and having fun and doing things together. With the second kid coming it felt like a seven year set back and taking away attention from the first kid. I know that's wrong thinking and that many people have multiple kids and do many things, but change is difficult for me and need time to adjust (look I'm still upset with the Content I Follow from nearly a year ago). So perhaps that will be my biggest challenge adapting to two kids or dealing better with change.

 

Now that I'm back the first thing I have to do is figure out my priorities. Food and RH activities will be toward the top but posting may be a little lower. Now that I got a thread started there is no excuse to put up at least a quick update about how things are going. Here's to a new start.

[Elastigirl]

Welcome back!

[Bearlee]

Thanks for the quick like Elastigirl. Think it was less than 3 minutes that I started this new thread that I got a like from you.

 

Thanks for the like and follow also Emma. Nice to know you are still around.

 

Got up this morning before the family so I could get my mile walk in for the day to fulfill my requirements for Rising Heroes. Was 15F today compared to 7F yesterday so was thinking "Hey it's twice as warm today" but there was a nasty wind today that wasn't around yesterday so may have actually been colder. Well it wouldn't be heroic if there weren't trials.

 

Yesterday had fun with cub1 by going to a scouting event where we got to cut his pinewood derby car. His troop has a connection with a woodworking shop and it felt right being among all the tools in there. The carpenter there used a band saw to cut all the cars for the 15 scouts there and then we went to the sanding machines and did that for ourselves. Now just need to do the weighing, painting, and wheels at home.

 

After that went to sisters to have lunch. We went out to Red Robin and I ate like an ass, but surprisingly I was close to my allotted calories for the day according to My Fitness Pal. The rest of the day food wise was good with eggs and grapes for breakfast and a few chicken tenders late in the evening.

 

Now just need to get one more mile walk in and my third 15 minute workout for the week in before 7AM Monday and I will have completed all tasks for RH. Should be able to do at work tonight. Though when I do the 15 minute workout I will have to find a different warm up than the one that NF suggested because thoracic bridges and reaching over is near impossible for me at the moment.

[Shello]

Welcome back!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sloth the Enduring]

Ugh I hate the new forum. I can never get it to work for me. I stick with Tapatalk's participated list.

When you were first here your big dream was living to see BearCub graduate. Isn't that big enough.

I used to make pinewood derby cars with my students. Lots of fun.

10 pounds a month?!? Damn. It sounds like you're doing the right things again.

[Bearlee]

4 hours ago, LadyShello said:

Welcome back!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you.

 

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Ugh I hate the new forum. I can never get it to work for me. I stick with Tapatalk's participated list.

When you were first here your big dream was living to see BearCub graduate. Isn't that big enough.

I used to make pinewood derby cars with my students. Lots of fun.

10 pounds a month?!? Damn. It sounds like you're doing the right things again.

That's still my big dream but need to add another 7 years now. But seeing how many people have interesting things they want to do I feel a little inadequate to not have some other sort of goal.

 

Those cars are fun. Think the adults are having more fun than the kids.

 

Yep, can really pack it on. Too bad can't do it the other way. Aiming for a pound per week which should be doable. Sadly that won't get me back to where I was, but looking more to establish habits that will stick and serve me for the long run.

[Elastigirl]

Way to go on staying in your calories.The thing I like about MFP is how  it shows me I can go out and have a nice meal and more than I normally eat, as long as I cut back at my other meals. It tends to curb my  " I just blew it for one meal, I might as well give up for the day" tendency.

Really, my big goal is just to continue being healthy so that I can still do fun things when I'm older, and if I have grandkids one day, play with them.

[Bearlee]

Good Monday morning. I'm off to a good start. Got my 15 minutes of exercise in, 1 mile of walking (actually 2), and have done 10 minutes of meditating with the Calm app. Sunday night went to grocery store and bought most of the good food I will need for the week. Bought 5 bags of frozen vegetables that are sitting in the work's freezer and 3 things of salmon patties. Wife cooked up a big batch of homemade chicken noodle soup, so will have some of that later today. Only thing I didn't get to was getting some reading in, but that got knocked down on the priority list.

 

So all tasks completed for Rising Heroes this week. 3 sessions of 15 minutes of exercise, a mile walked everyday, and 30 minutes of meditation done (30 minutes of specialization, I choose meditation). Looking forward to new details to what we are suppose to due this week. Should be coming later today.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Good job brother.

[Bearlee]

So got new tasks for the week. 1, Debug HQ which involves selling, donating, recycling, or throwing away one item per day for the rest of the week. Example they used was to remove everything from a closet and look at each item and ask “Does this item currently add long-term joy, value, or purpose into my life?” If not it gets tossed. Reminded me a lot of LadyShello's KonMari challenge she did way back when.

 

2 and 3 is walk one mile everyday and 15 minutes of exercise 3 times during the week.

 

4 is Operation Unprocess where we have to prepare two meals with no processed items in it. Some grumbling on the forums that NF is trying to push the paleo diet, but to me it just makes sense. Cook some meat and add vegetables, sounds like a delicious challenge.

 

5, The Drive By Compliment. We're suppose to pick one stranger this week and compliment them and walk away. This one seems oddly hard for me. Mostly because I don't like to talk to people if I don't have to. Secondly, I hardly see many strangers during the course of a day. About the only time I see strangers anymore is when I'm out shopping. Perhaps that needs to be my target time.

 

Other details, got my walk in, 1.45 miles. And did my first Debug HQ by cleaning up the back seat of my car, several old magazines and other things that don't need to be there. Plus I would have needed to clean that area soon if I want to install a new car seat for Cub2, so works out well.

[Shello]

9 hours ago, Bearlee said:

So got new tasks for the week. 1, Debug HQ which involves selling, donating, recycling, or throwing away one item per day for the rest of the week. Example they used was to remove everything from a closet and look at each item and ask “Does this item currently add long-term joy, value, or purpose into my life?” If not it gets tossed. Reminded me a lot of LadyShello's KonMari challenge she did way back when.

It sounds really similar.  I found it really helpful to think of things that way.  Hopefully it works for you.  

 

Sounds like you've got some great plans for the week.  Any ideas on the meals you'll prepare?

 

 

[Bearlee]

On 1/10/2017 at 2:14 PM, LadyShello said:

It sounds really similar.  I found it really helpful to think of things that way.  Hopefully it works for you.  

 

Sounds like you've got some great plans for the week.  Any ideas on the meals you'll prepare?

 

 

One meal down, baked salmon with mashed sweet potatoes. Don't know if I'll do that again or get some jalapeno burgers from the store and have with a bag of steamfresh veggies. So many meals come close but dumpling stew has flour, roast I make uses canned soup (beef consomme and french onion), and ground bison and rice I use cream of mushroom and cream of chicken. A salad wouldn't kill me either.

 

Tuesday, walked my mile and cleared off kitchen table for my missions.

 

Wednesday, walk a mile, threw out some things from the basement, and did 15 minutes of exercise. Don't know if the exercise should count since I half assed it, but just wanted to get the habit started that I'm exercising 3 days a week.

 

Thursday so far got my mile in.

 

Almost had a three day streak of 10k steps but ended up short on Wednesday by about 500. Though my step count is way up from what it was before so still a win.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday my mood has been very swingy. Think is due to lack of sleep. I've been a dumb-ass and have not gone to sleep right after dropping off cub from school. Thursday won't be able to rectify it since I have a dentist appointment. I will take extra effort to make sure I get more sleep. Bad mood led to bad decision making and had McD for dinner Wednesday night. Probably more due to lack of planning as I didn't have anything lined up to take to work. Didn't feel like shopping so that is the result. First day in week and a half that I went over on calories according to MFP. So several wins to one loss is still progress.

[The Most Loathed]

5 minutes ago, Bearlee said:

One meal down, baked salmon with mashed sweet potatoes. Don't know if I'll do that again or get some jalapeno burgers from the store and have with a bag of steamfresh veggies..

Well now I'm just hungry.

[Shello]

8 minutes ago, Bearlee said:

Wednesday, walk a mile, threw out some things from the basement, and did 15 minutes of exercise. Don't know if the exercise should count since I half assed it, but just wanted to get the habit started that I'm exercising 3 days a week.

 

It always counts.  

[Bearlee]

Been a while since I last updated so better do so before next tasks come out tomorrow. I've done my mile walk and clutter cleaning everyday except Friday/very early Saturday. Reports have been that Icemaggedon was suppose to happen and I didn't want to get out and walk in it. Well it never came. Slight icing Sunday so didn't walk that day also, but did spend one of my uncluttering projects by cleaning up the exercise bike and then rode that for 30 minutes. Calling that equal for safety reasons.

 

Decluttering everyday except Friday. May have done it but didn't mark it on my character page. Mostly small areas but Sunday got around to one of the bigger areas I wanted to do, the closet in my bedroom. Cleaned out items that my cousin left over in there. If he hasn't come back for it in 5 years he's probably not coming back for it.This is leading to a cascading effect of where I can now move my clothes from Cub's room to mine and Cub's clothes from wife's room to Cub's room.

 

For my other unprocessed meal I had jalapeno hamburgers and roasted asparagus. I also had pineapple brats and asparagus but when I looked closer at the label I saw that there were a lot of processed chemical in the brats. Thought they were made in store and would have less chemicals. And if the hamburgers also had chemicals I did make scrambled eggs with fruit on the side.

 

Did get my compliment a stranger task done. While I was at the dentist I complimented one of the receptionist on her scarf. She said thanks and told me it was an infinity scarf. Is nice to have something obvious to be able to compliment. Was going to compliment a student from Cub's school that had a project made of gum drops and tooth picks but that it would be creepy for some unknown old guy to yell "Nice geodesic dome" across the playground.

 

I've been doing exercises on the scheduled days. However still feel like I'm half-assing it. Though I can tell I'm improving on push-ups.

 

So this week completed mostly positive. Waiting for new tasks tomorrow, if holiday doesn't delay things. Also came across this video from Steve that helped me out this week. Perhaps it will help on of you. Days and Weeks Not Weeks and Months.

 

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Was that an article? I think I read that. It's a good mindset.

Don't worry about half-assign it; you're still rebuilding the habit. Once you've got that back start worrying about cranking it up.

I tried to find a good stranger danger meme but they were too creepy. I don't think I've complimented a stranger in RL ever. That's 20 seconds of courage I doubt I could raise up.

Don't be a stranger brother.

[Elastigirl]

You're doing great! I have a had enough time talking to people I know, much less strangers.

[Bearlee]

23 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Was that an article? I think I read that. It's a good mindset.

Don't worry about half-assign it; you're still rebuilding the habit. Once you've got that back start worrying about cranking it up.

I tried to find a good stranger danger meme but they were too creepy. I don't think I've complimented a stranger in RL ever. That's 20 seconds of courage I doubt I could raise up.

Don't be a stranger brother.

It's a YouTube video talking about instead of thinking about what to for the next weeks and month instead think about what you can do today to get where you want to be in a year. It's suppose to keep you from getting overwhelmed about what you have to do and derailing for a week if you messed up one day. Plus it just gets you thinking what can I do today to make myself better. You can search YouTube for "Days and Years not Weeks and Months" to see the video.

 

22 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

You're doing great! I have a had enough time talking to people I know, much less strangers.

Thanks, surprisingly this seems to have been an obstacle to more people than I thought it would have. Though we seem to be a resilient bunch and a lot of touching stories coming out of that task.

 

Sunday didn't do well. Stressed out from the impending ice doom/ wife going back to work leaving me with both cubs for the first time. So when the time came that I should have exercised I just vegged out (actually fell asleep in chair) and missed my workout window. Did at least get a walk in.

 

Monday and new tasks. First two are the nearly the same of working out 3 times a week and walking a mile per day. Though the mile task now has a height requirement which is nice because so far I've only been walking on level surface and will be nice to incorporate some stairs back into routine.

 

Third is a new habit building skill of making your bed every morning. Easy task that is suppose to give you the feeling of accomplishment first thing in the day.

 

Fourth is fifteen minutes three times this week devoted to our specialization. They didn't mention anything about it last week so I forgot to do any meditating. Though I'm thinking about changing my specialization to electronics. Second shift co-worker has been going above and beyond our job and doing some really neat things like rebuilding test equipment and bread boarding circuits to be able to test other equipment.

 

Fifth is batch cooking at least three meals for the week. I've already accomplished this by making dumpling stew Sunday. I'm getting at least five meals from that. Though that my not be the healthiest choice so still leaving my option open to batch cook something a little more healthier.

 

Got an optimistic outlook for the week. Putting the missed workout behind me and thinking about what I can do today to move forward to where I want to be in a year from now.

[Elastigirl]

The tasks in Heroes Rising seem really great. Awesome that you've already done some batch cooking.

[The Most Loathed]

11 hours ago, Bearlee said:

Sunday didn't do well. Stressed out from the impending ice doom/ wife going back to work leaving me with both cubs for the first time. So when the time came that I should have exercised I just vegged out (actually fell asleep in chair) and missed my workout window. Did at least get a walk in.

I'm increasingly convinced that for most people sleep is always a valid excuse to miss a workout. You don't want to make it an everyday habit but most of us will get more benefit from the sleep.

[Bearlee]

Monday I did well. Did my mile with 10 flight of stairs. Did my 15 minutes of exercise and upped my effort to 3/4 assing it. Actually felt good about it and was a little sore the next day which is a good sign. Made bed immediately after I woke up. And read one of my old electonics school books from my college days for a little over 15 minutes to fulfill my specialization task. And ate more dumpling stew.

 

Tuesday I forgot to make my bed immediately, but as soon as I remembered I ran to my room to complete that task. Also knocked out the mile with 10 flights of stairs early in the day. More reading and even did another session of meditation. Not sure about the specialization the game talks about. I don't seem to have one thing I want to be fantastic at yet but want to dabble in a few things. So I'm thinking of doing something more like a skill tree where I can work on one of several different skills to see which I like better and unlock those upgrades. I also need to find something more to do with the electonics specialization other than reading. I have a few electronic/art projects that I can do with cub, hopefully he's up for them. And ate more dumpling stew. Amazing how long 5 potatoes, a pound of carrots, 2 pounds of roast, an onion, 12 eggs with 6 cups of flour, and water can last. Made the stew Sunday and the family has had multiple meals of this everyday and still have a day or two worth left over. I'll be getting at least 10 meals out of it myself.

 

Wednesday another dentist appointment since they could only work on one side of my mouth last week. So that means less sleep.

 

Tuesday went to the library and picked up a Jaime Oliver cook book Everyday Super Food. Was hoping to find a recipe or two that I could work with. Unfortunately after flipping through it it doesn't seem like I will. Don't know what I was expecting. Just trying to find some simple healthy meals that I and the family would enjoy. Didn't think the task would be that hard. I'll keep the search up. Seeing a lot of the Nerds on FB making egg cups, may give that a try.

[The Most Loathed]

Allow me to recommend The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. It's been out for at least a decade and we still go back to it and find new stuff on occassion. It's not great for leftover meals but it is great for healthy meals with reasonable prep complexity and time.

 

Are these the kinds of projects you want?

[Shello]

This is the recipe I used for this week's batch cooking.  I made some mashed cauliflower and some roasted veggies to go with it.  I bought about 2 or so pounds of steak and it made 9 servings.  It was unbelievably easy to make although slicing all the meat after it rested took longer than I had the attention span for.  I also just roasted some chicken breast to eat with the same veggies to fill in some of the other nights.  

 

I get most of my recipes now from Pinterest.   

[Bearlee]

23 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Allow me to recommend The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. It's been out for at least a decade and we still go back to it and find new stuff on occassion. It's not great for leftover meals but it is great for healthy meals with reasonable prep complexity and time.

 

Are these the kinds of projects you want?

Got it put on hold at the library and should be able to pick it up in a few days. A lot of people gave it good reviews on Amazon. Those projects look awesome and gives me a springboard for where to start. Now that Radio Shack is no longer an electronics store I didn't know where I was going to get items from. That site looks like the place.

 

18 hours ago, LadyShello said:

This is the recipe I used for this week's batch cooking.  I made some mashed cauliflower and some roasted veggies to go with it.  I bought about 2 or so pounds of steak and it made 9 servings.  It was unbelievably easy to make although slicing all the meat after it rested took longer than I had the attention span for.  I also just roasted some chicken breast to eat with the same veggies to fill in some of the other nights.  

 

I get most of my recipes now from Pinterest.   

That looks soooo yummy. I am definitely going to be making that. Saw a few other items on that site that looked tempting too. May actually have to get a Pintrest account now. I try to stay of too many social media sites since I just get sucked into a time hole and lose minutes and hours without knowing about it.

 

You guys/gals are amazing! Just thinking out loud and you come in with better answers than I probably could have found. I know it's not a Tim Ferriss original saying, but I hear him saying it the most, that we are the average of the 5 people that we hang with the most and you Rebels really bring up my average.

 

Was concerned when I got to work because there was a large truck parked in the area that makes up a portion of my mile walk so thought I wasn't going to get that done today. But I had to return home because I accidentally threw my iPad in the recycling bin and had to retrieve it. While there I thought why not do my weekend mile walk that I do through the neighborhood quickly, so I did. Got exactly one mile but only 8 flight of stairs (according to FitBit). But when I got back to work I did an extra 2 flight of stairs to hit my 10 average. So pumped about getting my walk in that I transitioned right into my workout and did 15+ minutes of that at what I perceived to be strenuous. So felt good about my efforts today. Bed made immediately after waking up. And dentist appointment wasn't as long as I thought it would be so got more sleep than expected. Feel like wins all around.

[Bearlee]

Forgot to mention that I went to Sam's Club yesterday and ran across a six pack of Kombucha. Heard about it on Sloth's thread and thought I would give it a try. Don't know if it's up to standards since it's from Sam's but still wanted to try. Says organic and hand-made but doubt both of those very much. Plus you need to keep refrigerated which I didn't think you did with Kombucha. Is a product called Gingerade made by GTS. If nothing else I just happy that my awareness has been upped to the point where I would recognize something like that. So even Sloth is bringing up my average ;P. Though if he joined team Taco Cat he might ruin the bell curve for the rest of us.